Chapter 5: Some Case Studies 1. Introduction

Chapter 5: Some Case Studies 1. Introduction

¶1.1 The previous Chapter explored the culture, practices and ethics prevailing at the News of the World (NoTW) before its demise. This, and the following Chapter, takes a broader view. They seek to examine the wider evidence submitted to the Inquiry in some detail, with a view to making a general assessment of the culture, practices and ethics of the press, in line with the Terms of Reference. It should be understood that it is not possible or desirable to cover all the evidence submitted to the Inquiry in the Report: some of it will be referred to simply by way of footnotes to the main text; other parts of the evidence will not be mentioned expressly at all.

¶1.2 In this Chapter, before proceeding to examine the evidence as a whole,¹¹ Part F, Chapter 6 I examine in detail a number of individual examples of press reporting in recent years. Some of those examples will be well known to many reading this report and include the reporting of the disappearance of Amanda (Milly) Dowler, the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, the arrest of Christopher Jefferies on suspicion of murder and the publication of details of the medical condition of the former Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Gordon Brown's son. The first three of those, at least, were chosen because they exemplified what might be described as the most egregious cases of unethical journalistic conduct.

¶1.3 The final examples included in this Chapter are defined by the fact that they are contemporaneous with the Inquiry; they are stories which emerged during the course of, or subsequent to, the formal hearings, and may indicate that the risks identified in the following Chapter cannot be dismissed as historical. They include the Daily Mail's attack on Hugh Grant's 'mendacious smears', the press treatment of the family of Sebastian Bowles after his death, and the contrasting approach to the recent stories which impacted on the privacy of two members of the Royal Family.

¶1.4 All (except the Royal examples) were subjected to detailed scrutiny during the course of the Inquiry. The theme common to them all, and which therefore merits their generic description as 'case studies', is their link to the next chapter of the Report containing the wider criticisms of the culture, practices and ethics of the press, and the emergence of patterns. In other words, each case study exemplifies at least one and often several of the attributes of and flaws in the press which have been addressed at length below;²² Part F, Chapter 6 in this Chapter, however, they are not addressed from the perspective of the criticism but rather from the perspective of the victim, thereby providing some insight into the overall impact of the way in which the relevant story has been reported. Accordingly, the time taken to examine these cases is not for the purpose of levelling specific criticisms against individual titles and journalists (although I recognise that this might be a by-product of the exercise) but for the light they shine on the wider picture. It follows that the analysis of each case study will not be exhaustive; it will merely be sufficient to illuminate and buttress the generic conclusions that I have felt it appropriate to reach.

¶1.5 What follows in this introductory section is a thumbnail sketch of each of these case studies, as a prelude to the more detailed analysis set out in subsequent chapters.

¶1.6 The evidence relating to the reporting of the disappearance of Milly Dowler is examined as the first of these case studies. This Inquiry was set up in the light of the public reaction to the Guardian's story published on 4 July 2011 that the voicemail of Milly Dowler was hacked into and tampered with by one or more journalists from the NoTW, such that a number of her voicemail messages were deleted, thereby giving her family false hope in her well being.³³ http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jul/04/milly-dowler-family-phone-hacking The evidence relating to these allegations will need to be examined, not least because the Guardian later retracted that part of its story that asserted that one or more messages had been deleted.

¶1.7 Of equal if not greater importance, however, is that Mr and Mrs Dowler were subjected to intrusive and insensitive press reporting at a time of intense personal distress. Such was the appetite in certain sections of the press to acquire information and photographs which would enable 'the story' to be kept alive as one of ongoing human interest to readers, these sections of the press often overlooked the privacy rights and personal feelings of the Dowler family. Thus, the family came to be treated as little more than a commodity in which the press had an unrestricted interest.

¶1.8 The Inquiry also heard at length from Dr Kate and Dr Gerry McCann, who, following the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine in Portugal in May 2007, were the victims of what may only be fairly described as serial defamations in a number of newspapers between September 2007 and January 2008. The McCanns were initially the subject of balanced and F sensitive press reporting in the British press: not merely did the story attract the open-hearted sympathy of the public, owing to the way that it resonated on a number of obvious levels, but the parents took a strategic decision at a very early stage to engage with the press in order to avail the search for their daughter.

¶1.9 By the summer of 2007, however, what had begun as a sympathetic approach by the press to an ongoing personal tragedy had altered; this change had been prompted by 'leaks' from the Portuguese police to the local and British media representing their version or speculation of what might have happened to Madeleine. Some, but certainly by no means all, sections of the press in the UK decided to run with stories which alleged that the McCanns were in some way responsible for the disappearance of their daughter. One title prided itself in the fact that it was apparently fair minded because on one day it would print a hostile story while the next it would provide a more sympathetic portrayal. The defamatory reporting continued for approximately four months, the principal perpetrator asserting that the public appetite for the story was undiminished. Ultimately, it took the threat and then the reality of libel action to bring this spate of reporting to an end, and the McCanns received substantial damages and a front page apology in settlement of their claims.

¶1.10 It was inevitable and entirely in the public interest that there be full reporting of stories about both Milly Dowler and Madeleine McCann. Like the Dowlers, however, the McCanns were also treated as if they were a commodity in which the public, and by extension the press, had an interest or stake that effectively trumped their individual rights to privacy, dignity or basic respect. The press believed that the public's legitimate interest in the story was insatiable, and that belief required it to sustain that interest by following every possible development or turn, however implausible or apparently defamatory. Also like the Dowlers, the McCanns were the victims of grossly intrusive reporting, prying photographers and an ongoing 'media scrum' which paid little or no regard to their personal space, their own personal distress and, in particular, the interests of Madeleine's younger siblings.

¶1.11 There are two other aspects of the McCann 'case study' which merits its inclusion as such. First, the PCC did nothing until it was too late, and the reasons for this inactivity need to be explored. Secondly, the NoTW published highly personal extracts from Dr Kate McCann's diary in September 2008 following a telephone conversation between its news editor and the McCanns' spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, on 12 September. The Inquiry was provided with a transcript of that conversation at an early stage, but without knowing the full background it was difficult to discern the true purpose of the conversation and what was understood or agreed by or between the participants to it. However, when he came to give evidence, the news editor accepted that Mr Mitchell had been deliberately misled so that it would appear that he had given his consent to the publication of the extracts on behalf of Dr McCann whereas in truth he had not.

¶1.12 Another individual who was the victim of unbalanced, prejudicial and wildly inaccurate press reporting was Christopher Jefferies, who was arrested on suspicion of being involved in the murder of Joanna Yeates on 30 December 2010. Mr Jefferies gave evidence to the Inquiry and, notwithstanding the remarkably measured and dispassionate terms in which it was given, testified to a series of egregiously defamatory and unfair articles in a number of national newspapers over the New Year period, which hinted, rumoured, speculated, suggested, or at times indicated that he was the perpetrator. Again, this is a very clear example of injudicious, sensationalised and intemperate reporting which was designed to feed what the newspapers concerned judged to be the curiosity and prurient interest of their readers; this was no doubt, supported by an (entirely erroneous) assessment that the police had 'got F the right man'. In the result, the police had not: Mr Jefferies was released, initially on police bail; subsequently, the perpetrator of Ms Yeates' murder (who had provided information which purported to implicate Mr Jefferies) was arrested, charged and convicted at a trial which did not challenge responsibility for the killing. Mr Jefferies brought defamation actions against a number of newspapers, and the Attorney General successfully brought contempt proceedings against two.

¶1.13 The next case study which will be examined concerns the story published in The Sun in 2006 regarding the illness of one of Mr Brown's children. This story is of interest for a number of connected reasons. First, even without disclosing its source so as to permit his or her identification, The Sun has refused to explain how the story was sourced. The second reason concerns the absence of any public interest justification for publishing a story about the health (ie the private life) of a child; and the third is the circumstances in which the paper sought to obtain the consent of Mr and Mrs Brown to its publication. The evidence in this last respect has clear resonances with the evidence of Anne Diamond, the broadcast journalist and presenter, relating to the death of her infant son and her enforced association with The Sun's cot death charitable appeal, and the evidence relating to the obtaining of Dr Kate McCann's consent, through a conversation with her agent, to the publication of extracts from her personal diary.

¶1.14 There is much that could be discussed about the evidence that actor Hugh Grant provided and he would be the first to say that press treatment of those who have achieved what is called 'celebrity status' should only be considered behind the complaints of people like the Dowlers, the McCanns and Mr Jefferies. He is included as a case study because of a detail in his evidence and the reaction that it provoked. He gave evidence to the Inquiry as to his belief that a story in The Mail on Sunday about an alleged flirtation with a 'plummy-voiced executive' had been obtained by voicemail hacking. Mr Grant accepted that he had no hard evidence to support this belief; it was an exercise in speculation (although it might otherwise be described as inference). The day after he had appeared before the Inquiry, on 22 November 2011, the Daily Mail published a piece which accused Mr Grant of making a 'mendacious smear' against the Mail titles. It is of value because it is a good example of the strategy of 'defensive attack' (although the Mail titles argue that the story was entirely justified) which itself represents a strand within the culture of the press. It is also of interest since the relevant evidence grew out of the Inquiry's proceedings themselves.

¶1.15 During the course of the Inquiry, Sebastian Bowles, an 11-year old schoolboy, was tragically killed in a coach crash in Switzerland. Unfortunately, his family was subjected to insensitive and intrusive press reporting which failed to respect their privacy and their grief. The evidence given by the family solicitor, Giles Crown, chimed with evidence given during the course of Module One of the Inquiry, more fully set out and footnoted below. Again, this has been selected by the Inquiry as a case study because it is illustrative of a clear strand within the culture, practices and ethics of the press, as well as shining light on the effectiveness of the PCC.

¶1.16 The final Section of this Chapter deals with two significant stories which entered the public domain after the formal Inquiry sessions concluded in July 2012. They relate to the private lives of two members of the Royal Family, Prince Harry and the Duchess of Cambridge. The intrusions in relation to Prince Harry, and the contrast with the approach to the story relating to the Duchess of Cambridge and the ramifications of both, form the basis of an important case study, illustrating as it does a series of generic issues surrounding the approach to clause 3 of the Editors' Code and the general provision relating to the public interest; the relevance F of publication on the internet; and the overall response (or lack of it) of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC).